What a glorious, sunny, crisp, clear fall day! I feel so lucky to live here and have such great skating trails at my doorstep.
Today my husband Marty and I slept in a bit while both our kids got up early and went off to work. There's something that feels so delicious about that! With fewer hours of daylight, often wet trails, and a deficit of skating time over the last month, I'm hot to go whenever I can fit it in, but I did need to at least wait until the sun was up enough to dry off the trails a bit and to begin shrinking the puddles and patches of wet leaves.
Marty dropped me off on his way to the gym and I got right to skating. Because I had a good chunk of skating time to fill until he had finished his workout, I set out from the Commons Park in Moraga towards the Lafayette Community Center. At my usual turn-around point, I kept going. I ended up skating further than I have ever skated before (at least since keeping track with my Nike + Running app on my phone). I ended up skating a 10k. Yay me!
Did the trail have acorns, leaves, sticks, and puddles for me to deal with? Yes, yes it did. Here is a picture of one of the challenges.
The Lafayette-Moraga trail near the Lafayette Community Center
As I skated past the Lafayette Community Center, I came across this sign:
Have you ever seen such a thing? Well, you can't say they didn't warn us!
Years ago when our extended family took our annual ski trips together, my kickass-skiing cousin Suzi used to tell us that you need to push yourself when you ski. She thought that a good measure of pushing yourself enough is to fall down every so often. That way you would continue to improve as a skier. I think of her advice often when I skate. Not that I am okay with falling while skating…I try to avoid that if possible. But I do make sure I keep pushing myself so that I keep improving.
I consider it a successful skate if I have at least one bobble…an almost-fall-but-not-quite moment...every time I skate. That way I know I'm pushing my limits...getting better and better with each passing week.
The funny thing I've noticed…the more I'm comfortable pushing my limits skating, the more I'm comfortable pushing myself into other uncomfortable areas in my life.
How do you like to push yourself?
Keep skating...or whatever you like to do!
Nancie ♥
My last skate:
11/25/12
Skate #160
Lafayette-Moraga Trail 6.85 mi
One of the major ways is for me to remind myself to not over think it. If I do, I stop myself. Enjoy your blogs ... Joan
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